INTRODUCTION, 73 
former days may have fed upon species of Dinornis, perching on 
their backs in a situation whence they could not easily be dis- 
lodged. If such was the case, it is easy to understand how 
the woolly back of the sheep might readily have attracted these 
Parrots. It would have but recalled to their imaginations asso- 
ciated sensations leading to acts which revived this instinct 
which thus had only become dormant in them. 

The Kea Parrot (Nestor notabdilis). 
A variety of other groups of remarkable Birds have no 
representative in Europe, and many of them are exclusively 
inhabitants of South America, which contains the most extensive 
forest-region in the world. 
Amongst these are the Toucans—very brightly coloured Birds 
with extraordinarily large, elongated, gently curved beaks, which 
